Skip to main content

Brazil infrastructure projects being privatised?

The Brazilian Government is considering increasing the number of projects being privatised in a bid to boost investment in the country. Brazilian president Dilma Rousseff has suggested increasing the number of federal roads included in the privatisation programme from four to 11. The economic team has presented 20 new road stretches to be considered for inclusion in the programme. These routes will be studied in order to determine which will generate the most interest from the private sector, with six or se
May 18, 2015 Read time: 2 mins
The Brazilian Government is considering increasing the number of projects being privatised in a bid to boost investment in the country. Brazilian president Dilma Rousseff has suggested increasing the number of federal roads included in the privatisation programme from four to 11. The economic team has presented 20 new road stretches to be considered for inclusion in the programme. These routes will be studied in order to determine which will generate the most interest from the private sector, with six or seven to be chosen in total.

Roads in the new list include a stretch of the BR-364 between Rondonia and Mato Grosso, requiring investment of US$2.34 billion, and group of roads in Rio Grande do Sul requiring investment of $1.8 billion. The four roads already to be included in the programme require total investment of $6.12 billion. However, only the tender for the stretches between Rio Grande do Sul and Santa Catarina and Parana is expected to be launched in 2015. The remaining three will follow in 2016. But the request to expand the privatisation programme, in addition to confirming the financing rules for the projects, has now led to the postponement of the programme being announced from May to possibly June 2015.

Additional funding sources are required for Brazil however, so that the country can continue with its much-needed infrastructure development. The Brazilian department of transport infrastructure, DNIT, has issued a report to the Auditors Court (TCU) which indicates that it faces imminent risk of being forced to suspend work on projects due to lack of funds. According to the document companies responsible for road maintenance and construction work across Brazil are currently owed over $568.94 million. The report also indicates that asphalt purchases have fallen 43% in 2015 in comparison with the first months of 2014. The report was issued in response to TCU preventing DNIT from adjusting the values paid to companies for asphalt purchases between November 2014 and January 2015, and claims that without this adjustment projects will need to be suspended. DNIT is already receiving communications from companies that have gone without payment for over 90 days which indicate that they no longer wish to continue services, putting road projects and road use at risk.

Related Content

  • A vision of roads
    September 3, 2012
    By 2040 European roads could be built differently, and hopefully be safer, according to the EU research programme NR2C
  • Delays for new bridge linking Brazil and Paraguay
    June 4, 2014
    Construction work on a new bridge connecting Brazil and Paraguay has suffered a further delay. The 760m suspension bridge itself is expected to cost in the order of US$102 million while the building of link roads and customs/immigration facilities bring the project total to some $170 million, according to a report by Business News Americas. Contractor Empresa Sul Americana de Montagens (EMSA) was originally thought to be the front runner for the project following its lowest cost bid of $101.78 million for t
  • EV charging infrastructure – what’s the future?
    November 14, 2022
    Road designers, construction companies and concessionaire firms will increasingly need answers about electric vehicle charging infrastructure and a new website is there to help – EV Charging and Infrastructure, evcandi.com - follows the latest news, technology and regulations.
  • New Holland graders for Brazil
    May 28, 2013
    The state of Minas Gerais, Brazil, has received New Holland machines that will be used to combat drought and develop infrastructure. At the delivery ceremony in Ribeirão das Neves, Belo Horizonte metropolitan area, President Dilma Rousseff handed over 58 model RG140.B graders to several local administrations in northern Minas Gerais state. The machines will be used in the reconstruction of roadways that link rural areas to urban zones, and they were acquired by the Ministry of Agrarian Development (MDA) in